1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carriage lifting apparatus.
2. Prior Art
As a conventional automated warehouse, there has been known an arrangement as follows: That is, the known arrangement includes a pair of front and rear rack devices provided in a predetermined spaced relation in a longitudinal direction and having a number of article storage shelves in every direction, and a stacker crane provided laterally movably between said front and rear rack devices, said stacker crane having a running truck, a carriage provided movably up and down along a mast provided on said running truck, and an article transfer device (for example, a slide fork provided slidably in a longitudinal direction) provided on said carriage, a driving device for said carriage comprising a winding drum rotatably provided with a diametrically central part thereof directed in a longitudinal direction with respect to the running truck or the mast of the stacker crane, a lifting rope which is secured to one end of the carriage, extended over a wheel at the upper part of the mast and thereafter the other end thereof being secured to said winding drum (in this specification, the term "rope" refers to a flexible lengthy material such as a chain, a wire rope, a belt, etc.), and a reversible motor for rotating said winding drum.
The conventional driving device for the carriage had the following disadvantages. That is, since the lifting rope on the carriage side is merely connected to the carriage, we have to merely wait till the vertical vibrations generated when the carriage is stopped due to the inertia of the carriage or the like are damped. However, this poses a great obstacle for the recent highspeed operation and for shortening the operation time.